Austin Cindric and Christopher Bell have fought tooth and nail for wins multiple times over recent years. They both made the playoffs this season but only Bell remains in contention for the title now after Cindric was eliminated in the Round of 12. Although these drivers race each other cleanly now, they were quite the enemies back in the day when they were youngsters.
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Cindric spoke about his hostile relationship with Bell in a recent interview for The Athletic. He said, “My relationship with Christopher Bell got off to a very rough start early on.”
“We got very upset with one another at Eldora in the Truck race. He pretty much dominated that race came through the field, roughed me up, I didn’t like it, and I hit him after the checkered flag.”
His actions led to Bell and crew chief Rudy Fugle coming over and yelling at him. Cindric noted that it was a fight that never got captured by the media. He added that they were all young and dumb at the time and that it was one of the very few verbal fights that he’d been a part of. The race that he talked about was likely the 2017 Eldora Dirt Derby 150.
He finished the race in 10th place driving for Brad Keselowski Racing. Bell came in ninth place driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Notably, he went on to win the championship that year while Cindric settled for third place on the points table. Many years have passed since and all is good between them now. But the journey to get here wasn’t a straightforward or eventless one.
The clashes between Cindric and Bell in the Xfinity Series
Both drivers secured promotion to the Xfinity Series in 2018. Cindric alternated between driving for Roush Fenway Racing and Team Penske while Bell ran a full-time schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing. They traded paint with each other at several points during the season but things boiled over at the ISM Raceway, Phoenix in November.
They were racing inside the top-5 in the second stage of the race when Bell made contact with Cindric. He continued to pass the Team Penske part-timer for third place but got stuck behind John Hunter Nemechek. Cindric used this chance and passed them both. But Bell came back once again and repassed his counterpart. This was when trouble arose.
Cindric wasn’t comfortable letting Bell lead him again and slammed him on the backstretch. Infuriated, Bell yelled a string of expletives at him on the radio. Fortunately, his crew stopped him from doing something irresponsible. He vented his frustration in the post-race interview.
He said, “The 22 (Cindric) was racing me like he does every single week and I got frustrated and I was over it. But those guys didn’t let me lose my head.”
He eventually ended up winning the race, so that must have helped him calm down as well. Cindric settled for fourth place.
